Nelly Sachs

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Nelly Sachs, (10 December 1891, Berlin12 May 1970, Stockholm) was a German poet and dramatist who was transformed by the Nazi experience from a dilettante into a poignant spokesperson for the grief and yearnings of her fellow Jews.

Born in Schöneberg, Berlin in 1891, she fled to Sweden in 1940. She was a friend of Selma Lagerlöf and Hilde Domin. When, with Shmuel Yosef Agnon, she was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize for Literature, she observed that Agnon represented Israel whereas "I represent the tragedy of the Jewish people." In the context of the Shoah, her deep friendship with "brother" poet Paul Celan is often noted today.

Following her death in 1970, Nelly Sachs was interred in the Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm.

A memorial plaque commemorates her birthplace, Maaßenstraße 12, in Schöneberg, Berlin; where there is also a park, in Dennewitzstraße, named after her.

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